POWER AND CHANCE: THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE

in #philosophy7 years ago

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Photo by Bud Helisson on Unsplash.


INTRODUCTION


In the foreseeable future… These words have never really sank into my mind until today. I have always taken the meaning of words, the intention behind them and the implication of using such words for granted. Too many times, I use words because I know the dictionary meaning and the contextual meaning but I forget that words also have implied meaning; that is the meaning of words that cannot be directly identified because the meaning does not actually appear in the statement except when properly evaluated.

This may mean that there are so many ways in which communication can be misconstrued, twisted by people. This also means that people can be manipulated. There are those who perform well at twisting the words of naïve communicators, in a bid to make them change their minds or do something they had no intention of doing. Lawyers are known for being proficient in this ability as well as politicians and the police. It would seem that the government has made a school for double speaking and the attendant sub genres but I digress.


THE IMPLICATION OF A PHRASE


What does the phrase, in the foreseeable future imply? It implies that there is a future that can be seen, that can be predetermined. It implies an ability to see the future. It implies that the speaker can penetrate the fog of tomorrow and can determine the course of events that will be the result of today’s action. It implies that the future can be tinkered with, for to foresee the future means having a hand in the creation of that future. I find that perplexing to some degree and some of us may disagree.

After all, every action has a reaction. It is expected that if you plant yam, you will harvest yam. This is foreseeable, this is foresight; the ability to predict the results of events, right? But do we really have foresight or is the future based on the caprices of the fates?

For though, the yam tuber is expected to be harvested at a particular time in the year, what if it does not rain and the plant dries up and dies or what if it rains too much and the farm is turned into a swamp, the plant rots and dies? Does that fall into the calculations of those who claim foresight?


THE POWER TO CHANGE THE FUTURE


The phrase implies a power that man does not necessarily have. He has facts, figures, precedents, history as the basis for his predictions but he is predicting against an unknown; chance. As chance affects the fates of man, it is, as far as I am concerned impossible to see into the future. Yet there is also an argument against my own argument and it is power.

For though man cannot change the fact that rain will fall or not or that the sun will rise at a certain time and set at a certain time, there is indeed a part of the world, an integral part of the earth's make up that man can affect. When a man influences this part of the earth, he or she can cause a change and alter its future and in some cases, such alteration affects the earth herself. This part of the earth is man himself.

Man has the power to make other men do things that will change their futures. They have the will and inclination to manipulate events through the manipulation of other men, for their own gains. This power is what some men use to determine, in a certain manner, the foreseeable future. For influenced action has an expected reaction and if a man is skilled at manipulation, he or she can easily identify what the reaction will be, and in so doing see the future.

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Photo by Ramón Salinero on Unsplash.

Power like every other thing that makes man go to war, steal and kill, is just a word unless when used. It is power that makes a man say a thing and it is done. It is the power to bend chance to one’s own whims and caprices that can make the phrase; in the foreseeable future a possibility.

How is this possible? Like chance, which can make a certain future become a lie by effecting a change in circumstances, in results through influenced actions, power can also manipulate the action of people which leads to a change in the future of the person manipulated and in some cases, indirectly affect the future of a community, an event, etc.


POWERS THAT CAN MANIPULATE YOUR TOMORROW


There are different forms of power that can affect the future in accordance with the wishes of the wielder.

  • Political power: enables government to bend the status quo to suit their own ends. Thus teachers who have worked for a month can be denied their wages despite the fact that the result of work is reward. They can deny the masses, basic infrastructures despite the fact that the taxes are supposed to enable the construction of roads, provision of water and electricity as well as well equipped schools.
  • Power of love: enables a woman to make a man stay at home despite his hunger to be out clubbing with his friends. Women will stop working and become housewives, denying themselves the dreams they had as young girls, the first class degrees and job offers because they are in love.
  • Power of fear: enables an ordinary man or woman to lord it over another. A girl will take a circuitous route on her way home instead of a short cut across the fields just to avoid being terrorized by hooligans. A man will build high fences topped with broken bottles and electrified wires because he fears thieves.
  • Power of money: makes better men small because they seek to please those whom they despise in order to protect their pockets. They will steal, lie, curse, pretend, in order to remain financially solvent. Those who have this power will turn a man against his family and turn a son against his mother.
  • Power of words: enable men, simple, honest men become wild beasts, killing, raping and pillaging. This power influences the mind and good people can be turned into animals with the right combination of vowels and consonants. Those who are good with rhetorics are dangerous if they intend their power for evil. Adolf Hitler is a suitable example.

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Photo by Richard Hodonicky on Unsplash.

  • Power of Knowledge: enables people to influence the ignorant and make them believe whatever and as a result their future can be manipulated. Those who own knowledge can use the kmowledge to influence governments and people, and to some extent, they can influence those who lay claim to the other powers listed above. Knowledge, they say, is power.
  • Power of choice: enables one to decide on what he or she will do and such a decision will determine the outcome. This power is not strong as it still falls under the influence of the other powers mentioned above but it is the only power that every man and woman can lay claim to, no matter status, race or creed. It is a power that is greatly dependent on one's strength of will as well as knowledge. The stronger your will and the greater your knowledge, the more difficult you are to influence.

There is a power which I have not mentioned here, spiritual power. I have not mentioned it here because empiricism and rational thinking refuses to accept the possibility of a spiritual dimension that influences the physical world. I believe strongly in the supernatural's influence of events in the physical realm and I consider it to be the only power that chance cannot affect. I believe it is a power that is of more importance than all the other powers put together but I am trying to be realistic as possible, as well as being less controversial, so we will not speak on it.


YET CHANCE MAKES IT ALL REDUNDANT


If a man lacks all of these powers, he cannot lay claim to what the future holds. He can not in any manner, whether small or great, determine the foreseeable future. He can postulate, project, portend and all but he will mostly fail in his projections and postulations because he will have all the above powers to contend with as well as chance, which favors no one, not when it really matters anyway.

It should be noted that except for choice, which is innate in man, the other powers mentioned are manipulative. They are deliberate tools used by people who know how to use them, to make other persons do what they want them to do. The only way to defend against these manipulations is by utilizing a well developed sense of self, ability to identify when you are being made to do something against your will and of course, chance. But since chance stands outside any human influence, even your own, it is advisable that you do not depend on it but rather build your ability to use one or more of the powers to defend against any form of manipulation.

Chance is anarchist and anarchy does not see intentions, implications, possibilities, good or evil. It is chance that can make a manipulation fail no matter how well a powerful person utilizes his or her power over another's future. Can we foresee the future? We can influence it, twist it, manipulate it but can we truly determine the outcome of our activities or can we can only speculate.


Hey folks, this is Oskilo's blog and he would love to read your suggestions on how to make this blog better serve you. He would like to know what you, his reader, think of the content so do not forget to leave a comment; you just might have something he needs.

Peace,

©warpedpoetic.


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I enjoyed reading this. I believe the power of words is most intriguing, not just because it influences the mind but because its mastery has the ability to chart the course of our lives and future, more like you getting what you confess and this could be either positive or negative.

Yes indeed. Words have the power to manipulate the mind. Look at what pastors do to congregation with words, look at governments too. Then look at what we profess within ourselves. Words have strong power.
Thanks for stopping by @udywriter and welcome to steemit.

@warpedpoetic nice one sir..
First of all you reminds me of the saying "fear lawyers" they are something else😂.

Also I liked it when you talked about "power of knowledge." I wish most times people would key into that, have seen alot of people defeated because of lack of knowledge. Knowledge is indeed power.
With knowledge we can overcome, strive and win battles.

And lastly when I talked about defending against the manipulations you listed, I love the solution you gave, which is

utilizing a well developed sense of self, ability to identify when you are being made to do something against your will and of course, chance.

To me I think gaining indepth knowledge would do just right to that.

Thanks for this post, have been looking forward to a new post from you ever since you said you would be going back to commenting.
Keep living and God bless.

Thanks, you are right about indepth knowledge but knowledge will not be of help if it is not utilized and if you do not know what you seek, you might have all the knowledge and it will be useless.

But if you speak of the knowledge of human behavior and you know how to identify people trying to influence your decision making then indeed it is the solution.

But then again, we have chance, which my knowledge will have no control over, which no one can influence. Chance can kick a well set up flex of power, because it takes no sides.

The stack against humans seeing the future or even a foreseeable future is quitelimited.

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You Sabi book ooooo..
Your type was the ones that attended all classes promptly without missing any.
Thanks for sharing this path of your idea. You always give me more reason to meet ya soon 😁✌️.

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